Too Skinny To Be Luna

Lyra's POV

Someone snickers behind me.

"Is that her?"

Another voice, louder this time. "She's supposed to become somebody's Luna? She can't even fill out her ceremony dress."

Laughter ripples through the crowd like wildfire catching dry grass. I clutch the silver fabric tighter around my ribs, wishing it would just... swallow me whole.

Tonight is Mate Ceremony.

The night every unmated she-wolf in the pack has dreamed about since she was old enough to shift.

For me, it's the night everyone showed up just to watch me lose.

"Look at her arms," someone whispers. Not even quietly. "How's she supposed to survive a birth, let alone a heat?" An older woman near the front asks, shaking her head like I'm a stray dog that wandered into a wedding. "Poor thing. No wolf in her right mind will accept that."

A little girl, maybe six, imitates my walk behind her mother's skirt — shoulders hunched, arms wrapped around herself. Her mother laughs and doesn't correct her.

I keep my chin up. I've had years of practice pretending I don't hear.

I do hear. Every word.

The moonlit courtyard is packed wall to wall, unmated wolves in their ceremony best, waiting for the Moon Priestess to call the names. Somewhere in this crowd is the boy who'll be my mate — chosen by fate, sealed by the bond, no say in the matter for either of us.

I used to think that was romantic.

Tonight it just feels like a countdown to humiliation.

The Moon Priestess climbs the stone steps at the center of the courtyard, staff in hand, silver robes catching the moonlight. The chatter dies to a hush.

Then a new sound ripples through the crowd — not laughter this time. Something closer to a held breath.

"He's here."

I don't need to ask who.

Alpha Draven walks in like the ground owes him something. Broad-shouldered, dark-haired, eyes the color of a storm that hasn't decided whether to break yet.

Every wolf in the courtyard turns to watch him cross to the front — Betas straightening, Omegas ducking their heads, girls twice my size sucking in their stomachs like it might matter.

He doesn't look at any of them.

He looks at me.

I don't know why. I don't know how. But for one impossible second, across an entire courtyard full of people who'd rather I disappear, his eyes land on mine and he doesn't look away.

Neither do I.

Something low in my chest turns over, warm and terrifying, like my wolf just woke up and started pacing.

Someone clears their throat behind me. I break the stare first, heart slamming so hard I'm sure the wolf beside me can hear it.

That can't have meant anything.

Alphas like him don't look at girls like me. Not really.

The Moon Priestess raises her staff, and the whole courtyard falls silent, three hundred wolves holding their breath at once.

"Tonight," she says, voice carrying without effort, "the Moon Goddess speaks."

A murmur. A shuffle of feet. Somewhere behind me, a girl grips her friend's arm so hard I hear the fabric strain.

"The Moon Goddess has chosen..."

The staff swings.

Points.

Straight at me.

"...YOU."